| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Warm, juice down the front of your shirt, August tomatoes By Linda Waggener Every summer I search for, but rarely find, the taste that immediately transports me back to the tomato rows in the big garden on the tobacco barn hill. Standing amidst the rangy vines, I would slip my hand past the clingy, deep green leaves, and ever so respectfully cup my palm under a large red tomato that would drop soundlessly from the vine, without resistence, because it was absolutely, perfectly ripe. I'd hold it up between me and the setting sun, appreciate the art and beauty of the tomato, dust it off on my shirt, bite into its warm salty meat, close my eyes and smile. Saturday I found that taste again at a Casey County Menonite farm in a cardboard box of fresh picked, red and yellow, warm, juice-down-the-front-of-your-shirt, August tomatoes. I had been searching for this taste all summer. It wasn't to be found in any grocery store; not even in a commercial fruit stand. I had about decided the only real tomato tastes I'd have this year would come from family members who grew them. Then I decided to make one more search at the 127 yard sale this past weekend between Liberty and Russell Springs. On one side of a little gravel road sat a colorful fruit stand beautifully arranged, but their tomatoes looked too good to be true -- too perfect, all the same color and size. I kept walking through the booths, among bargain and antique hunters, until my taste radar zeroed in on some boxes of imperfect, dusty red and yellow tomatoes that looked real, you know, sort of like the instinct that comes from experiencing lumps in the mashed potatoes, verifying that they didn't come from powder? Each Menonite tomato had its own unique shape, was unpolished and had an occasional ding or dirt smudge. The yellow ones looked like Siamese twins, joined at the head. The red ones, some large and lighter red, some smaller and deep red, varied in size -- they had the look of tomatoes that came off the vines at the gentle urging of human hands, not selected by mechanical pickers. I bought eight pounds of tomatoes at fifty cents a pound. Then, while my husband wandered in search of Schwinn bikes from his childhood and rare books, I respectfully cupped my palm under a medium sized red tomato that looked absolutely, perfectly ripe. I held it up between me and the setting sun, appreciated the art and beauty of the tomato, dusted it off on my shirt, bit into its warm salty meat, closed my eyes and smiled. For a moment I was ten again, Mom and Dad were working in the nearby tobacco patch, my little brother was off with his bb gun taking a break from harassing me, my trusted dog Bitsy was by my side and the whole world was out there waiting to be discovered, right after I fueled up with that perfect tomato.--------- To share your stories, e-mail: Linda@ColumbiaMagazine.com or place your comments below. This story was posted on 2004-08-09 08:36:12
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know.
More articles from topic News:
FULL NEST SYNDROME: Weight loss method discovered Are my roots southern? School Board meets Thursday, July 15, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. Minister wants information on Columbia High Class of 1930 Storm rages over Adair Tuesday night TRAVEL: Lighthouse tours in Michigan KSP Captain Jeff Hancock negotiates end to all-night stand-off Russell pedestrian, driver hospitalized following accident Westlake Auxiliary to be honored Kentucky Youth Advocates announce Fellows View even more articles in topic News |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
